It is projected that the world's population will increase by over two billion in the year 2050, with Sub-Saharan Africa having the highest population growth rate to over 2.4 billion in the next 40 years. In order to meet the need of a growing population, 60% more food must be produced. Food security is defined as the opportunity for all individuals to have availability, access, utilization, and stability to nutritious and wholesome foods produced in a sustainable environment. Poverty limits the development of food security for a number of reasons, including lack of market information, poor skill development, low security of income, inadequate credit for investment, a lack of electricity, and limited water supply.
Almost 1.5 billion farmers worldwide lack access to clean water and sanitation, and live on less than $2 a day. On average, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa spend 5% of GDP, or $28.4 billion annually, on health spending and labor diversion due to poor sanitation and lack of clean water access. Worldwide, there are over 500 million smallholding farmers, who feed over 2 billion individuals.
Barriers to establishing a solar system and renewable water technology in developing countries include costly engineering assessments, high installation labor cost, the financial burden of buying equipment, lack of appropriate distribution channels, and insufficient business models.
The simplest way to increase the efficiency of solar panels, thermal cells, and the like is by utilizing heliostatic motions, thereby tracking the sun across the sky throughout the day. Solar trackers tend to have a mounted column that supports the weight of the solar panel, and is securely fasten to the sub-level or ground.
To incorporate the three-dimensional movements of a two-axis tracker, a slew drive would typically be placed between a solar assembly and the column. Due to the technical constraints of the elemental effects of weather and wind, a slew drive must be designed in correlation with the size of an array in order to sustain the full weight capacity of the assembled system. This fact adds significant cost to the entire system.
This may present a barrier for implementation of technology in developing countries. In this regard, the photovoltaic intensification system has no incorporated slew drive for the rotation of the assembled array, and by alternating the art of the solar tracker, engineers will be able to design a tracking system that is both light weight and more efficient than other solar trackers.
As such, considering the foregoing, it may be appreciated that there continues to be a need for novel and improved devices and methods for photovoltaic intensification systems.